News Item: From the Second World War on, the U.S. often destroys countries through war only to help rebuild them. Germany and South Korea are examples.

You are the wise one Mr. Owl. Do you have an answer to this silliness. Why destroy countries only to rebuild them?

It is more than silliness little pussycat -- millions of humans have died.

And bombs don't discriminate between women and children and fighting men.

Worse pussycat, worse! In war, the fighters are not in the cities. They are at the battlefront.

So why bomb cities?

It's modern war. Everyone is an enemy -- the civilians through the war effort.

But that was true in the old days ... the blacksmiths and the armorers produced the weapons of war.

That's why they were often slaughtered when cities fell. Humans haven't changed much. In fact they are probably worse if one counts the proportion of civilian casualties.

So what are we to do Mr. Owl. You are the wise one. How do we stop the senseless slaughter?

Well, wars now are often economic -- the military industrial complex keeps humming. The rebuilding keeps the civilian economy going ... like after the Second World War. Some have an after-war boom. Mini booms after mini wars. There is a lot of desert out there pussycat. What they have to do is build large cities there, equip houses with the latest gadgets, put cars in garages, carpets, furniture, conveniences ... the lot. When it's all finished, we send in bombers to bomb, soldiers to attack and destroy using up tons of ordinance. When it is all over, why we start again, clearing the rubble, building again. Just imagine, we would never have a recession again!